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Capturing Giants How the ROM Is Using Multimedia Technology to Bring Ancient Dinosaurs to Screens Everywhere by Sheeza Sarfraz

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Capturing Giants How the ROM Is Using Multimedia Technology to Bring Ancient Dinosaurs to Screens Everywhere by Sheeza Sarfraz Behind the Scenes Capturing Giants How the ROM is using multimedia technology to bring ancient dinosaurs to screens everywhere BY SHEEZA SARFRAZ A scene from the Late Triassic of Argentina. Csotonyi T. Julius Illustrations: McMahon. Rob Photo: 1814 ROM Magazine WinterSummer 2011 2012 ROMM027 - Page 14-15.indd 18 12-05-17 2:37 PM Based on Giganotosaurus’s colossal dimensions, scientists believe that, had the hemispheres not separated it from Tyrannosaurus rex, this southern giant would have dethroned its vs. northern counterpart as the apex predator. onjuring extinct creatures into existence, the This footprint, likes of which have never been seen, is challenging. belonging to Giganotosaurus, But as the ROM prepares to take visitors millions of is approximately C 3 feet long. years back in time to the supercontinent of Gondwana, we are doing just that. Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana focuses on the dinosaurs down under—those that inhabited the land mass now split into South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Madagascar. Seventeen full-skeleton casts of these southern giants have been created and will be shown alongside an array of real fossils. But in today’s digital age, multimedia forms the bedrock of any representation of prehistoric life. In a post– Jurassic Park world, can audiovisual elements excite interest in ways that Hollywood hasn’t already? This exhibition, the first ROM-produced natural history focused on the science. We help interpret their research and blockbuster, will provide the answer. Quite different from tell the stories behind it.” Dreager believes integrating digital what’s typically seen in effects-heavy dinosaur movies and technologies into exhibits is an effective way to educate and television, the ROM is using technology to immerse guests entertain increasingly technology-savvy visitors. in multiple aspects of this prehistoric world. The large- Among the footage brought back from the badlands of scale geological processes that split the supercontinents Argentina are shots of a rocky landscape etched with enormous into the ones we are familiar with today, for example, are dinosaur footprints almost three feet in length belonging to elaborated through a participatory puzzle that allows users Giganotosaurus—part of a walkway frequented by dinosaurs to re-align the drifting continents using in-house iPads and millions of years ago. “Going into the field to film these locations a communal screen. allows us to communicate to the public the idea that these To see how the animals might have looked fleshed specimens are from a real world that was living and vibrant,” out, complete with sound and movement, visitors can says McMahon, who directed and produced the documentaries. direct iPads at digital markers next to dinosaur skeletons. “Dinosaurs didn’t come from outer space. They once lived in the Geological, biological, and anatomical perspectives of the same regions that we explore in our video.” animals are shown onscreen, down to the skin and flesh Dr. Ariana Paulina-Carabajala, the paleontologist who as that cover the bones we so strongly associate with the word a graduate student in 2000 discovered the star of the show— “dinosaur.” Motion-sensing screens allow for an interactive, the titanosaur Futalognkosaurus (which averaged 107 feet in and perhaps at first slightly unnerving, experience as length!)—was among those interviewed. She returned to the dinosaurs react to visitors’ approach with onscreen scene of her discovery to speak with the ROM team. activity. Large-scale IMAX projections give a sense of the Filming also took place at a vineyard where workers surroundings these creatures inhabited. stumbled upon important dinosaur fossils during construction A human dimension, documenting how dinosaurs are of the winery. McMahon’s goal with the documentaries is to discovered and studied today, is very much part of the have visitors feel they are part of the expedition, to convey the exhibition narrative. Towards the end of March 2012, Randy wonder of discovering the prehistoric world that existed where Dreager and Rob McMahon, both audiovisual specialists humans now dominate. Says McMahon, looking at a case of on the ROM’s Media Productions team, accompanied bones preserved within the winery: “You can imagine that the exhibition curator David Evans to the province of Neuquén dinosaur died here, therefore that it also lived here.” at the northern end of Patagonia in Argentina to shoot Thanks to multimedia technology, the ROM is able to on-the-ground mini-documentaries in the places where invite its audiences into the virtual Mesozoic world of these these rare dinosaur specimens were discovered. impressive southern dinosaurs. “Videography is a way of enhancing our storytelling,” explains Dreager, who is also the ROM’s manager of Media SHEEZA SARFRAZ is a researcher/writer at the Royal Ontario Productions. “When curators go into the field, they are Museum Press. Check the fall issue of ROM magazine for news on Paleontologists who uncovered how Augmented Reality is changing the way visitors Masiakasaurus knopfleri were experience museums. listening to British band Dire Straits when they made the discovery. The dinosaur, which is featured in the Follow David Evans as he takes readers behind the scenes ROM’s exhibition, was named after during the making of Ultimate Dinosaurs at blog.rom.on.ca. Mark Knopfler, the band’s vocalist Map the #ultimatedinos adventure on twitter @ROMPalaeo and lead guitarist. and @davide_rom. Photo: Rob McMahon. Illustrations: Julius T. Csotonyi T. Julius Illustrations: McMahon. Rob Photo: ROM Magazine Summer 2012 15 ROMM027 - Page 14-15.indd 19 12-05-17 2:37 PM.
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